Maritimes - Day 13

This was a much longer driving day than I was expecting, but I guess the drive from Fredericton to Moncton that we did yesterday really isn't that long, and while the drive from Moncton to Sydney is 450km, it isn't all nice highways, especially once you are on Cape Breton.

The first part of the drive was easy and the Nova Scotia sign at the border is pretty and big and has a road to it so you can stop for a picture without risking your life.  We met a nice family from Massachusetts at the sign and swapped turns taking each pictures.  Once in Nova Scotia, we were able to stop for lunch at a small provincial park that just had picnic tables and outhouses, but it was a nice location for a bit of a break.  We've seen a lot of trees and rocks since we got out of Manitoba, but I think Nova Scotia looks the nicest.

The next part of the drive was difficult, as I was tired, there wasn't really a lot of great places to stop and the drive seemed to be taking much longer than it should have.  Part of that was that I took the highway to North Sydney rather than Sydney when we crossed onto Cape Breton Island, and there is a difference of 50km between the two routes.  We eventually made it to the Alexander Graham Bell National Historic Site, where we stopped in order to do something today and to get some rest from sitting in the van.  Bradley wasn't too impressed, but Jonathan, Alex and Evan enjoyed looking at the inventions that were in exhibition.

Then it was on to our hotel in Sydney and a grocery store for supper.  On the way out of the hotel, we encountered a couple looking at our license plate and talking about how long a drive we were on (5600km so far).  They were from Edmonton, but had flown in and rented a car.

This hotel has a giant two story waterslide, so I took the kids to it for almost two hours.  Tomorrow we are going out to the Fortress of Louisbourg before taking the ferry to Newfoundland.  I'm not certain if I will be able to post tomorrow night, as we get on the ferry in the evening for an 11:15pm departure, but if I have time, I will try to get something up.  (Or if they don't let us on the ship, I will definitely post something after we've found a hotel room.)